by Sandy Hall
When they got to the backyard, there was a huge deck and a view of the ocean.
Jane definitely understood why Claudia and her brother had a party there every summer.
“Won’t the neighbors complain about the noise?” Jane asked.
Margo shrugged. “It’s not really that loud. And at least some of the noise is drowned out by the ocean.”
Jane and Margo went inside to see who was around, said hi to Claudia and Darryl, and then went back outside to get drinks.
“I won’t drink,” Jane said. “I’ll drive home.”
“You’re just terrified of my driving.”
“There’s that, but I also don’t really care about drinking.”
“Have you ever gotten drunk?” Margo asked.
“No, and I really don’t think tonight’s the night to start.”
“Start what?” a voice asked behind them.
“Oh! Hello, Teo!” Margo said.
“Hey, Margo,” he said, obviously confused by her enthusiastic greeting.
“Well, I see someone over there I need to talk to,” Margo said, pointing in a vague direction and leaving Teo and Jane standing by the keg.
“Are you drinking?” he asked, starting to pump a cup of beer for himself.
“Um, no. That’s what I was saying to Margo. I don’t really drink.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Me neither,” he said, taking a sip.
“What do you call that?”
“Drinking. But I mean I don’t get drunk. Not really. I have one or two, for the sake of being social.”
Jane nodded and peeked into one of the coolers, happy to find a bottle of water.
“This is me being social,” she said, taking a sip.
“If anyone asks, tell them it’s straight vodka, and they’ll think you’re a complete badass.”
“Oh, I am a complete badass. That’s for damn sure.”
“No doubt about it.”
They stood there looking at each other for a minute before they realized that they were in the way of everyone else trying to get to the keg.
“Let’s find somewhere to sit,” Teo said.
Jane was surprised that he didn’t run back to his friends right away, but she decided to enjoy being with him while she could.
They found a spot below the deck, where there were a few scattered lawn chairs that no one had claimed yet. Teo got up a few times to fill his cup while they talked, but Jane was thrilled that he kept coming back to her. Before long he was more than a little bit tipsy.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he meandered back after his fourth refill, weaving between the chairs. “I should go find my friends. I don’t want to monopolize all your time.”
“You’re not,” Jane said, shaking her head. “If I wasn’t talking to you, I would be following Margo around.”
Teo smiled and plopped back down in the seat Jane had saved for him.
“Unless you want to go find your friends. I know I saw the guys from the soccer team.”
“Nah, I think I like it right here with you.”
Flattery would get him everywhere with Jane.
By ten o’clock, Teo had moved past tipsy and well into drunk territory.
“So,” he said, smiling, looking more than a little loopy but so cute Jane couldn’t stop staring at him.
She shook her head.
“What?” he asked.
“I thought you didn’t get drunk,” Jane teased.
“I’m okay. I’m fine,” he said, slurring his words.
“Yeah, you seem fine.”
“Look,” he said, standing up and handing Jane his beer. He stood on one foot and tried to tap his nose with his fingertip, alternating hands the way cops make drunk drivers do. Except Teo kept completely missing his face.
“I don’t think that’s working,” Jane said.
He giggled and sat back down. “That wasn’t working.”
Jane laughed.
“Is it hot out?” he asked.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Good, I’m glad it’s not just me. I think, you know, in, like, Siberia they put whispey, whisquey, whisp—” He blew a raspberry and tried again, laughing at himself. “Whiskey! They put whiskey in, like, those barrels around a dog’s neck and then, like, people out in the cold drink the whiskey or something? To get warm?”
“I don’t know if they really do that in real life. It might only be for cartoons. But, yes, I know what you’re talking about.”
“I was worried that beer did the same thing as whiskey, made you really hot.”
“It might,” Jane said. “I don’t know what beer is truly capable of.”
“You know, you’re smarter than you pretend to be.”
“What?” she asked.
“You’re smart. Even though you think you’re not that smart. But you talk like you’re smart.”
“I have a decent vocabulary, nothing too flashy. I blame my parents. But being able to talk like you’re smart and actually being smart are really different things.”
He dug into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, handing it to Jane. “Count my money. Please.”
“This is very weird.”
“Yeah, but I’m drunker than I expected and…” He paused, shrugging. “I don’t know. I don’t remember what I was going to say.”
She patted his shoulder and couldn’t stop smiling.
“How much money do I have?”
“You have seventeen dollars.”
“I bet you seventeen dollars that you’re smart.”
He took his wallet and put it back in his pocket and then shook Jane’s hand.
“All right,” she said.
When they were done shaking hands, he leaned his elbows on his knees and stared at the ground. Jane poked his side, and he looked over at her.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.”
“What are we going to do about you?” Teo asked.
“Me?” Jane asked, putting her hand to her chest to feign shock. “What about you? You are one sorry drunk.”
“I’m not sorry.”
“Fine. But you are drunk.”
“How are we going to settle this bet about how smart you are?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It’s a tough one.”
He put his hand out to her, and Jane took it, thinking he wanted to shake again, but instead he held on to it, twining their fingers together.
“I like your nail polish,” he said, smoothing his thumb over it.
“It’s called Sweet Escape.”
“It’s the color of a Creamsicle.”
“I’m sorry to say it doesn’t taste like a Creamsicle.” The whole moment was surreal to Jane. It was like she was talking from outside her body. It felt like something was happening around her instead of to her.
“What are you escaping from?”
She didn’t answer, instead drawing his hand closer to her and studying it in the light from the deck.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice right in her ear, his breath raising the hairs on her neck.
“I’m looking at your palm.”
“Are you going to read it?”
“I was thinking about it.” She traced the lines on it lightly, and he shivered. Jane glanced over at him. He looked a little lost, but a lot less sleepy all of a sudden.
“I think we’re a lot alike, Jane Connelly,” he said.
“I think maybe we are, too,” she said after a while.
He pulled his hand away and leaned back in his chair, looking at the stars.
“There’s a lot of stuff people don’t know about,” he said.
She watched his eyes dart back and forth, like he was searching for something up there besides the stars and the low-flying planes.
“I don’t know a lot of stuff,” he continued. “But I want to learn everything.”
Her heart constricted, and she felt tears rise in her eyes. Something about Teo in this moment was everything she lo
ved and hated about life, all rolled into one.
The next thing Jane knew, Teo leaned over in his chair, closed his eyes, and aimed for the approximate location of her lips. But his drunk brain misjudged the distance, and instead he fell out of his chair and flat on his face.
“Ouch,” he muttered, rolling over.
Jane could hardly stop laughing. “Are you okay?”
“That was supposed to be romantic,” he said mournfully. “Like on the roof. I was going to be the right person.”
Jane offered her hand to him. “Come on,” she said, helping him sit up.
“That hurt my arm and my pride.” He scrunched up his face. “I am really thirsty. I should have more beer.” He scrambled to his feet, but Jane pushed him back into his chair.
“No more beer. I’ll get you some water.”
“Okay, fine,” he said, huffing out a breath.
“Stay here,” she said. “I’ll be back.”
He nodded.
Jane went in search of the cooler where she’d found water bottles earlier, but it was empty. She went into the house but couldn’t find any cups to get water from the tap, and there was nothing in the refrigerator besides pickles and leftover takeout containers. She saw an open door leading out to the garage, and another fridge out there, along with a gorgeous red convertible. She didn’t know much about cars, but this one was so pretty she wanted to take a picture.
She grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the garage fridge, and when she turned around, she heard a rustling noise coming from the car. Then she saw some movement in the dim light. What if it was a murderer?
“Ah! Don’t hurt me!” she cried, dropping the bottles. Two human heads popped up. “Shit, sorry. You scared me.”
“You think we scared you,” a girl’s voice said.
Then a different girl’s voice giggled. “Seriously. I thought you closed the door, Margo.”
“I thought I did.”
“Margo?” Jane asked into the darkness.
“Jane?”
Jane’s eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, and there, in the front seat of the convertible, were her sister and Kara Maxwell, their hands still on each other.
Margo slid across the bench seat away from Kara, looking guilty.
Jane picked up the water and walked quickly out of the garage. She heard Margo say, “I’ll be back,” and then a ruckus as she tried to hop over the car door rather than simply opening it.
“Wait, Jane.”
Jane stopped.
“Please. Can we talk?”
Jane turned around.
“Please don’t tell Mom and Dad.”
Jane laughed. “I promise I have zero interest in talking to Mom and Dad about you making out in a garage with Kara Maxwell.”
Margo put her hands over her eyes. “I really didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“To find out what?”
“That I’m bi, obviously.”
Jane’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t even considered the implications. Finding your sister making out with anyone is weird.
“Considering it happened like seven seconds ago, I haven’t really had time to process the details,” Jane said.
“Are you mad?” Margo asked.
“Of course I’m not mad. It was unexpected. But not anything worth getting mad about.”
Margo crossed her arms, like she was trying to give herself a hug. “What do you think Mom and Dad are going to say?”
“Margo, seriously, it’s been all of twenty seconds now. It’s a lot to process, even without all these questions.”
“You’re mad.”
Jane rolled her eyes and shifted the bottles of water over to one arm. She pulled her sister into a hug with the other.
“I’m not mad. That would be the stupidest thing ever to be mad about.”
Margo sighed with relief.
“Now, come on, Teo is basically shit-faced, and I need to get this water back to him. And we should probably go home, since it’s almost midnight.”
“Time flies,” Margo said. “Let me go say good-bye to Kara, and I’ll meet you at the car.”
Jane collected Teo, and they made their way to the car. Margo was already waiting there.
“You okay, Teo?” Margo asked as they approached.
He nodded, and Jane opened the back door for him.
“Thanks, you guys,” Teo said as he threw himself into the backseat.
“Please don’t vomit in my car,” Margo said.
“Please don’t vomit in my car,” Jane said, looking at Margo pointedly.
“Please stop talking about vomit,” Teo said.
Chapter 12
The knock on Teo’s door on Sunday morning was definitely not a quiet one. It was a knock to wake the dead, and it carried on for what felt like hours, until Teo’s groggy brain allowed him to move enough to stumble out of bed. He shed his tangled sheets and barely remained upright, but he managed to lurch over to the door to stop the god-awful racket.
Before he opened the door, he took stock. All he could really feel was an epic thirst. It was like his whole body was thirsty. His eyes, his skin, his hair—it was all thirsty. Not just his mouth.
As he opened the door, he prayed silently that it wouldn’t be Buck. Anyone but Buck. Teo couldn’t handle his stepfather at the moment. But of course it was Buck on the other side, holding up Teo’s cell phone. Because that was how life worked.
“This has been in the living room making noise for the past two hours,” Buck said.
“I’m sorry,” Teo said, taking it from him.
It was only 7:02 in the morning. No wonder Teo was exhausted. And no wonder his cell phone was making a lot of noise. He had about fifty notifications ranging from texts making sure he got home okay to photos that he’d been tagged in to new friend requests.
“Why have you been in the living room since five?” Teo asked, rubbing at his eyes.
Buck rubbed his own tired eyes. “Keegan had a nightmare. She went back to sleep, but I couldn’t.”
Teo yawned and leaned on the doorjamb. “Oh God, that sucks,” he said.
Buck nodded.
Teo wasn’t going to remain upright much longer. “Anything else?” he asked, hoping to cut through Buck’s usual hemming and hawing.
“Yeah, the lawn,” Buck said. “It needs to be mowed.”
“Right this minute?”
“No, but sooner rather than later. Definitely today.”
“But I just did it,” Teo said, the whine in his voice making a headache spike behind his eyes.
“The grass continues to grow, Teo,” Buck said with the barest edge of impatience in his voice. “And I know you missed curfew last night.”
Now Teo understood. “Are you going to tell my mom?”
“I should, but I won’t if you do the lawn today.”
“I can do that. I have today off. Any chance I could go back to sleep for a little bit?”
“Yeah, sure,” Buck said, patting him awkwardly on the shoulder before turning to go downstairs. “Make sure you shower, too. You smell like a distillery.”
Teo sniffed at his shirt but couldn’t really smell anything.
After brushing his teeth and drinking vast quantities of water from the bathroom sink, Teo threw himself back into bed and fell into a fitful sleep.
The alcohol had made his brain a little foggy, but when he woke up next, he felt a lot better. His conversation with Buck seemed like a dream.
Teo tried to put the pieces of last night back together, and a lot of it featured Jane. He opened the notifications on his phone and found that all the pictures he was tagged in also featured Jane.
Jane and him by the keg.
Jane and him in the background talking.
Jane and him sitting in lawn chairs, looking at the sky.
The evening definitely had a theme. Teo stared at the images, trying to remember what they had talked about, but he really wasn’t sure. It made him nervous not to
know.
Teo had a tendency to latch onto people. There weren’t a lot of people who appreciated that quality. Hopefully, Jane didn’t mind.
He sat straight up in bed, a cry of horror on his lips.
He had tried to kiss Jane and failed spectacularly.
He exhaled through his nose and tried to remember the lead-up to the kiss. Maybe she had wanted to kiss; maybe he’d been reading the signs better because he was some kind of drunken kissing savant.
The smell of pancakes drifted upstairs, and Teo decided it was time to get out of bed and face Buck. And the lawn. And his newfound feelings for Jane that he hadn’t even known about until he got drunk last night.
He got out of bed and showered fast, keeping the water on the cold side to wake up his fuzzy brain.
Buck was cooking at the stove and Teo’s sisters were all sitting around the table when he walked into the kitchen. They greeted him with their usual exuberance.
“Teo!” Keegan said, her voice like knives stabbing at his mushy skull. If this was what a hangover felt like, Teo’s drinking days would be over before they even really got started.
Piper and Rory acted like they hadn’t seen him in months, even though he’d had dinner with them last night.
“Mommy’s taking us to see Tía Marta today,” Rory said.
“Sounds fun,” Teo walked over to Buck to get a plate of food for himself. Buck piled a plate high with pancakes and then sort of leered at Teo, as if daring him to consume so much breakfast after he’d been drinking. But the joke was on Buck because Teo was more than up to the challenge. It wasn’t his stomach that was bothering him.
“Are you going to come with us?” Piper asked. How had he never noticed that her voice was like nails on a chalkboard?
“No,” Teo said, glancing over at Buck and doing his best to keep from sounding too whiny. “I need to stay home and mow the lawn.”
“Boo, that’s boring,” Keegan said.
“I know. But it’ll make the house look nice,” Teo said.
The girls seemed less than impressed.
Teo’s mom swept into the room then, kissed all the girls on top of their heads, and then stopped when she got to Teo.
“Are you ill?” she asked, putting her hand on his forehead.
“No, no. I slept like crap last night.” He stopped himself before he said anything further, not wanting to raise his mother’s suspicions.
